Sadera Imperial Palace.

Emperor Molt was in the throne room, along with his right-hand man Marcus, reading the report on the taking of Basel.

"Hmm... He saw the opportunity and took advantage of it... But going to get into Helvetic territory was very impulsive on his part." said the right hand of the emperor." Although seeing how easy it was to take the capital we could say that he was right that they sent forces to help the tribes surrounding the Inland Sea, thanks to that we know that we are at war with them too and that they were punished for their audacity."

"And he seems to have quickly called in the slave companies to move the new slaves, after this Basel will only be a shadow of what it once was." The emperor held a glass of wine.

"Shall I send reinforcements for Prince Zorzal?"

"No." he answered drinking a little, surprising Marcus.

"Your will be done, Your Majesty, but... may I ask why?"

"Because those forces will fulfill the main objective, to secure the entire Inland Sea, now that all Gali forces are concentrated in Helvetii there will be no risk of ambush."

"I understand my lord... But we have enough strength to do both things."

The emperor drink another sip of wine. "It is not convenient to conquer the Gali." He answered." Even if we manage to destroy all their armies, the Gali are too rebellious, it took 50 years to make the tribes that we conquered integrate into the empire and in all that time there were multiple revolts, sabotage and even wars of independence.

"I see... But in that case, why not do an ethnic cleansing and disperse them throughout the empire?"

"Doing that would leave thousands and thousands of kilometers of land empty, which means that we would have spent money for nothing, plus it would turn all that territory into a fertile ground for bandits." Leaving the cup aside. "You said it yourself Zorzal was very impulsive, I am sure that if I send the reinforcements under his command he will not hesitate to start a campaign of total conquest against all the tribes."

"I understand your highness, when he sees that there are no reinforcements the prince will have no choice but to retreat after looting and enslaving everything he can from Helvetii."

"While we make ourselves strong in the Inland Sea, so that a treaty favorable to us can be formed... Now send a messenger to my son informing him of the situation."

/

Basel city.

After four days in the Helvetic capital, a caravan of slavers had already arrived along with several soldiers of Duke Canus to serve as a garrison for the city and thus be able to leave the city with all the force intact, although Zorzal could demand of the nobles slavers to send their soldiers to him, he didn't want to make them angry in any way, so he rented out his soldiers by not only paying the nobles to let them use them, but also paying their wages while they were working for him, so he had at his disposal 6,000 new men that he was leaving in the cities and towns through which he passed.

"47 thousand slaves...-"said in a low voice the son of Duke Canus, Tiberius, who was sent to "learn the family business". "He enslaved more than half of the population...- that great city of 67,000 was now reduced to 20,000."

Tiberius disliked slavery, his mother died when he was born so he was raised by a slave until he was twelve, along with her children whom he considered his brothers, one day he saw one of the guards brutally beating Tiberius. one of his brothers, so trying to help him took a hammer, hitting the guard on the head and killing him. His father, upon finding out, was furious to see that his only son and heir considered some miserable slaves as his family, so he made his son see how the guards beat his brothers to death as a lesson. He still remember every second.

The woman he considered his mother fell into madness when she found out what had happened, so she was sold at a very low price as she was no longer useful. Tiberius couldn't understand why this happened; he didn't understand why everyone acted like this was normal.

When the young Canus was forced to go to Zorzal's birthday and saw how the prince got angry when he saw the slave his father had given him, for a moment he felt hope, for a moment he thought he had found someone who would share his point of view, someone who could change things and do justice for what happened to her mother and siblings... Only for that hope to vanish soon after, insulting the poor girl by comparing her to a mangy dog, she didn't care the most least what that girl had suffered, she only cared that she looked desirable, after that she found out that she visited the mansion to buy more slaves. And now that prince was enslaving more people.

Looking into the distance, he could see Zorzal riding towards the exit, intending to take over more cities and towns like this one and place chains around the necks of innocent and good people like his mother or siblings, regardless of whether they are adults, women or children.

Seeing him, annoyed, he spit on the ground as a sign of disgust and disgust, and then had to continue with his mandatory work.

"Zorzal El Caesar, may Emroy curse you."

/

"Your highness, are you sure you have freed the 10 thousand slaves who were in the city?" asked my general.

"Yes, now there are 10,000 loyal to the empire who will work together with the garrison to control the other 10,000." I answered remembering the conversations I had with them, where we agreed to release them after they swore loyalty to the empire, they were very happy Of finally having achieved freedom and... Also very eager to take revenge on those who enslaved them. "Cornelius, did you send messengers to all the places I sent you?"

"Yes, sir, they should meet with us later." He answered.

"Perfect, in that case we can continue."

During these four days I had begun to write several letters to the different tribes that lived within the territory that had been subjugated by the Helvetians in the past. Thank the gods that Canus gave me Saskia or I would be lost right now! In those letters came proposals about swearing allegiance to the empire in exchange for forming autonomous duchies and counties controlled by them in the territories that belonged to the respective tribe. I even gave instructions to my messengers to negotiate about forming their own kingdoms, obviously vassals.

The march continued unstoppable, going from town to town while the slave caravans followed us to take the "loot" and leave the garrison in the city.

Some villages resisted, the larger ones did, erecting palisades and makeshift fortresses to try to hold out as long as possible, yet they were no match for us at all, being overwhelmed by the professionalism and numerical advantage of the Imperials.

Of course there were some idiots who did not heed my orders about "bloodless plunder" as they called it, so they were decapitated and their heads were placed in the camp as a reminder to those who had it in mind to defy my orders.

Another thing that let them know that he was serious, was that if any of the soldiers were killed by civilians during a looting when it was not allowed then or raping the assassins of this were rewarded with several coins of silver and with the possibility of freeing two slaves each who were brought to the plaza as booty, as a reward for helping the empire punish deserters.

Although it was not all bad for the imperial soldiers, the first thing was the low mortality that existed at the time the looting was ordered, since being in organized groups and not being distracted significantly reduced the risk of an ambush or that some civilian dared to attack them when they saw how they snatched their belongings. Another advantage is that, by not getting drunk or wasting time raping, they ended up collecting more loot in the square, so they received significantly more money in the distribution. Another thing that helped the loot collected to be greater was that it was distributed equally, with the exception of those who achieved a great feat in combat who received more loot, so the more they gathered in the square, the more they received.

Others who benefited were the slavers, since I had added another order, that any civilian who was close to the soldiers at the time of the assault on the city and was not a threat, would be captured and taken back to be immediately enslaved, less civilians dead meant more slaves, and the military argument I used for that was taking advantage of the fact that all the wave of people fleeing towards the enemy ranks slows them down and make it more difficult for them to organize.

This practice would become known little by little, and without realizing it, it would affect the development of one of the most important incidents of the original story, the one that started the entire history of Gate, but that is a story for another time.

/

Gali coalition camp.

The Helvetic king was nervous and impatient, awaiting the arrival of the King of the Parisians along with the other two, he had heard reports that the Imperials were occupying various towns and cities and using their slaves as guards to maintain order, he couldn't get himself out of it. from the mind the question of how did they see through the plan? The only ones who knew that we were going to take our forces to reinforce Inland were the other kings. "Did any of them make a deal behind our backs?"

"Your Majesty Krurr! The king of the Parisians, Harngeil, has arrived and requests an audience with you!" Said one of his soldiers.

"It was time for that bastard to come, let him in."

With a bow, the soldier leaves the tent to be followed by the Parisian king, who was trying to make a formal salute but was prevented by King Krurr.

"Get straight to the point, Harngeil. Do you have any way to fix this mess?"

"I have an idea on how we could easily defeat this Zorzal prince who commands the imperial forces." he replied with a smile.

"Oh! What do you have in mind?"

"It's quite simple, something that characterizes the empire is its ego, and the royal family is no exception. "He answered taking a pause and then continued. "Even if we have numerical superiority, those imperials will always have the advantage if we fight head-on, so we must set a trap for him." He took a map to try to illustrate his explanation. "When the battle begins, we will make our armies go back, pretending to flee, when those imperial dogs see that they are making us flee they will chase us trying to hunt us down , so we're going to lead them into a trap, whether it's in a forest or behind a hill or whatever is on the battlefield, when they fall into the trap they'll suddenly be completely surrounded and outnumbered."

"That... sounds good but are you sure that prince would fall for a trick like that? He already prevented our plan to attack him by surprise, I don't see why he wouldn't do it again."

"That was because he knew somehow that we were involved in defending the mountains and forests to ambush him and he knew that he would be at a disadvantage but if that is the case... Why not wait for reinforcements from the capital to occupy Basel and the rest of the city? territories instead of launching a campaign with that limited number at the risk of facing all of us without support? I'll tell you why, out of pure ego and pride that characterizes these bastards, that's why I'm sure they'll take the bait, wanting a total victory.."

Finishing discussing the plan and possible places for the battle, Harngeil returned to his tent, they would all march together tomorrow to go for the head of the Prince of the empire.

The young king took off his boots to prepare for bed. "How strange destiny can be... But it has given me a great opportunity! Ever since I saw Zorzal in the series, I've always wanted to see him suffer in the worst ways! And now that piece of shit is within reach of my hands to give him the death he deserves!" Smiling, he imagined the innumerable tortures to which he would subject the prince. "Not only that, with the head of the Imperial Prince and with the Helvetii in decline nothing can prevent me from becoming the king of all Gali! And once the JSDF reaches Falmart it will be time for all the territories that the Imperials took from the Galis to come back under our control."

/

"hmm... Winter is coming..." I said feeling how the icy air came from the East from the mountain range of ice and snow, I remembered Saskia saying that if the cold air arrived in summer, it meant that there would be no autumn that year because it would be as cold as in winter.

On that day we had just reached a large village, belonging to one of the minor tribes, there were large fields of wheat more than two meters high, all just above a hill, and to the left a few hundred meters there was a forest, a perfect place to defend and spend the winter called Golden Hill.

Yes, we were going to spend the winter here, we were not equipped to continue in freezing climates.

It didn't take long until I was called to the tent, a letter had arrived from my father, I wanted to know why it took so long to send the reinforcements if the caravans and soldiers of the nobles had arrived quickly, in fact Duke Canus decided to give me 2 thousand legionnaires, so now having lost almost a thousand soldiers before now I now have a total of 30 thousand imperial soldiers under my command, plus 10 thousand Gali soldiers from the tribes that accepted the treatment of my emissaries.

/

After reading the letter explaining my father's plan, my expression was grim knowing that they had sent the reinforcements to the Inland Sea instead of here, and that was not all, the scouts detected an army of at least 70 thousand approaching here.

"The genius of the emperor has no limits!" Said my general Servius. "We just have to withdraw little by little, take everything possible and burn everything in our path."

"But general, we promised the minor tribes protection." Cornelius said when he saw that if we left the fury of the Coalition would fall against them.

The general wasn't worried about that. "They are barbarians, let them kill each other," he replied coldly.

Seriously, I looked at my general and spoke. "Are you saying that my word is worth nothing? That the word of a prince can be taken lightly?"

"N-No your highness! Forgive me if I was disrespectful."

"Gentlemen, I know that my father has good reasons for asking me to return, but he does not know that the tribes have internal enemies who were subjugated, slaves who would be more than grateful to us for freeing them, my father believes that a slow advance is the best way to not have to deal with rebels and troublemakers, but if we play our cards well then we will be able to find thousands and thousands of loyal subjects to the empire who will not rebel and will keep others under control for us, those 10 thousand men are the try, shouting from the rooftops that their tribes are now part of the empire, if we leave now and leave them we will lose any chance of getting loyal people in the whole north. So we will fight and we will win."

And so, my first big battle draws near, the Battle of the Golden Hill was about to begin.